I am not a fan of modern Chinese machines badged as Hoover (we like the vintage ones though that were made in the UK).

The 1993 "Flights to Florida" scandal that lost Hoover their Royal Warrant and ended up with the company being sold to Italy's Candy not only cost me money at the time, but also irreparably damaged the brand in the UK (that Dyson immediately took advantage of to become the market leader). One reason we became Dyson specialists is because of Hoover's behaviour in the early 90s - we were determined to put as many non-Hoover vacuums into as many local homes as we could. One of my first big Dyson deals was grey importing from Europe several hundred new DC04s. I was one of many that never got my Florida flights from Hoover.

We do not stock modern Hoover products to this day partly because of this, and partly because of very poor product quality in the modern Chinese machines badged as Hoover. The Hoover name is meaningless now, they are just generic Chinese machines with a sticker on.

For those who dont know much about the Hoover free flights fiasco that led to the downfall of the company, here are some interesting videos:

That promotion stunt not only killed Hoover UK but also contributed to the demise of Hoover US some years later. From what I know maytag used hoover as an enourmous cash reserve whenever maytag wasn't doing well. When Hoover UK got itself into this mess maytag sold them off to avoid the financial ramifications. Then they essentially milked the US division dry and tossed the broken husk to TTi in 2007.

I place most of the blame with maytag, they took money that Hoover needed for proper R&D and as a result many of the last US Hoover products were poorly desgned and made. But at least they were made here. And to be fair despite the bad quality at the time of the sale to TTi, all the vacuums in Hoover's line cleaned carpets very well.

Must watch this, look at the top notch grade A chod in the thumbnail for video 3! Al lthose AEG Vampyr's, I ruddy love those, would happily swap my car for one!

Logged

Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!